Mixed Martial Arts Law Blog : Mixed Martial Arts Lawyer & Attorney : David Nelmark : Belin Lamson McCormick Zumbach Flynn Law Firm : Intellectual Property, Media Law : Des Moines, Iowa

A Massachusetts blog that keeps a close eye on government happenings has reported that Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick signed into law a bill making the Bay State the 42nd state to regulate mixed martial arts.

MMALB has not been able to confirm the signing, but even if it has not yet occurred, it seems to be only a matter of time.  According to the official history of the bill, the Massachusetts Senate passed a draft 35-1, and the House of Representatives approved a modified version 144-10.   The Senate concurred in an amendment made by the House, and the bill went before the Governor on November 23, 2009.  

Dana White is excited that the UFC will get to promote an event in his former hometown, and he should be equally excited about the manner in which the bill has sailed through the Massachusetts Legislature.  With the oft-discussed New York bill still in limbo, having 94% of legislators supporting the bill in a nearby state can only help the cause.

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Since this blog launched, a lot of people have asked: "What is Mixed Martial Arts Law?"  The real answer is that any law can affect a mixed martial artist or MMA promoter (as loyal readers to this blog can attest).  That said, a more precise definition is: "the collection of statutes, administrative rules, and regulations that govern mixed martial arts competitions." 

Many people don't realize that, on the flipside, some mixed martial arts contests do not have to comply with any MMA-specific laws.  In Iowa, for example, professional MMA is explicitly allowed and is regulated by the Iowa Athletic Commissioner, but amateur MMA (unlike amateur boxing) is not under the purview of the Commissioner.  Nonetheless, that aspect of mixed martial arts continues to thrive in Iowa.  

After explaining the above, I sometimes get this follow-up question: "If a state athletic commission does not oversee mixed martial arts, why aren't the fighters arrested for assault?" The answer is, typically, that the activity is consensual.  In Iowa, assault is defined by section 708.1.  After listing the activities that constitute assault, the code section provides an exception for cases where the persons engaged in the activities are:

voluntary participants in a sport, social or other activity, not in itself criminal, and such act is a reasonably foreseeable incident of such sport or activity, and does not create an unreasonable risk of serious injury or breach of the peace . . .

Without such an exception, mixed martial artists would face assault charges, but so would participants in any contact sport.  

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